Life
?1755-1829; b. Dublin, son of upholsterer; author of Irishman
in London (Covent Garden 1790), and Theatre Royal (Dublin 1830) with
Tyrone Power; his son, W. C. Macready, was the producer in London of a
play by Gerald Griffin; The Irishman in London or The Happy African (1792), a farce, had 9 productions up to 1800 and another in Dublin
in 1830; The Bank Note or Lessons for Ladies (1795), an alteration
of William Taverners Artful Husband; possibly also The Village Lawyer (1787), all farces based on those of other authors.
RAF

ReferencesStephen Brown, S.J., Guide to Books on Ireland
(Dublin: Talbot 1912), cites William Macready, The Irishman in London
(Dublin 1830), with Tyrone Power.

Peter Kavanagh, The
Irish Theatre (Tralee: The Kerryman 1946), lists The Irishman In
London or The Happy African, farce (Covent Gardem 21 April 1792) 1793,
based on James Whitleys The Intriguing Footman; The Bank
Note or Lessons For Ladies (CG 1 May 1795) 1795, comedy based on W.
Taverners The Artful Husband; and possibly The Village
Lawyer (Haymarket , 28 Aug. 1787) 1795, farce based on LAvocat
Patelin, old French drama, though his name appeared on the printed
ed., there was a report that it was the work of a Dublin dissenting minister.

CommentaryPatrick Rafroidi, Irish Literature in English:
The Romantic Period, 1789-1850 (Gerrards Cross: Colin Smythe 1980),
Vol 2, give bio-data: b. Dublin, son of upholsterer, and father of the
great actor [W.C., supra]; professional actor, tours and Smock alley,
then Liverpool and London. Acted at Covent Garden for 12 years, and became
manager of provincial theatres. Three plays, The Village Lawyer,
2 act farce (1787) [Dictionary of National Biography says calls
this an apocryphal ascription from a pirated edition]; also The Irishman
in London, or the Happy African, 2 act farce (1792); The Bank Note,
or Lessons for Ladies, 5 act com. (1795). Bibl., Alan S. Downer, The
Eminent Tragedian William Ch. Macready, 1832-1851, abridged by J. C. Trewin
(London: Longmans 1967) - contains interesting notes on career and financial
difficulties.

Joseph Th. Leerssen, Mere Irish & Fior-Ghael: Studies in the Idea of Irish Nationality,
Its Development and Literary Expression Prior To The Nineteenth Century (Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins Pub. Co. 1986), William
Macready, The Bank Note (n.d. given here) has a servant Killeavy
who quits his masters service on an insult; accepts an apology,
but will not resume service with him. Another servant morally superior
to his master is Murtagh Delany, servant to Mr Connoolly [sic], an inveterate
snob, in his Irishman in London (1793), Faith, Sir, begging
your pardon, I think a man does not desarve to belong to any country,
thats ashamed to own it. Murtagh is the servant discussed
in Duggan who refuses to allow any manufactures in England to compare
with the oyster beds in Poolbeg or the lying-in Hospital in Dublin, they
are the right sort of manufactories ... those that provide comfortable
lodgings, and every sort of meat and bread, for poor craters that cant
provide for themselves. (Leerssen, op. cit., p.160.)

C. G. Duggan, The
Stage Irishman: A History of the Irish Play and Stage Characters from
the Earliest Times (Dublin: Talbot Press 1937; London: Longmans 1937;
reiss. 1969), calls him an actor and the author of The Irishman in
London or the Happy African (1793), ded. to Thomas Harris of Covent
Garden, in a note dated 3 Mary St., Dublin, though the play did not appear
on the Irish stage. It is an example of the Irishman expressly tailored
to debased English taste. William Patrick OBrien Colloony, squireen
of Ballinarobe, in London, affects to hide his Irish identity; accepted
as husband for Caroline by her father, Frost; but she is successfully
wooed by Captain Seymour, while Colloony settles for her friend Louisa,
and Murtoch, his man, marries an African brought over by the Captain;
the humour is raised by the Irishmans response to England, as a
naive foreigner. After a promising start, in which he disparages the lack
of impressive manufacture between Holyhead and London, the Irish element
in the play deteriorates into a concoction of whiskey, bulls, and sentimental
songs. ALSO, William Macreadys Bank-Note or Lessons for Ladies
gives Sir Charles Leslie an Irish servant called Killeavy who has worked
for an actor and has Shakespearean quotations for every circumstance.
(C. G. Duggan, The Stage Irishman, 1937, p.230-1).